If history repeats itself, as happy as they were Sunday night after the 8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Halle Berry and Russell Crowe will be very, very happy come March 24.
In six of the previous seven years the actor who won the Screen Actors Guild for outstanding performance in a leading role also took home the Academy Award a couple weeks later. (The one exception being Benicio Del Toro, who was nominated for–and won–a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.) This bodes well for a repeat Oscar win for 2002 Golden Globe winner Crowe, who Sunday night won an “Actor” for his work in A Beautiful Mind.
Though not quite as certain–the SAGs have only correctly predicted five of seven Best Actress awards–Monster’s Ball star Halle Berry can make Oscar history if she repeats her victory tonight for her outstanding performance in a leading role.
The SAGs, though, did muddle the Best Picture Oscar odds even more.
For the night’s top honor, SAG chose Gosford Park for best ensemble cast in a film (which mirrors the Academy’s Best Picture award) over Golden Globe best drama winner A Beautiful Mind and AFI best picture winner The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
SAG’s film awards are a closely watched indicator of Oscar sentiment, since actors make up the largest single voting block within the Academy at almost 25 percent. After missing in its first four years, SAG’s cast award has matched the Best Picture Oscar in two of the last three years, with Shakespeare in Love and American Beauty.
We interrupt this report to hand out a few awards of our own:
Now back to our regularly scheduled show recap.
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Ian McKellen opened the night brilliantly and intelligently; thus, it was no surprise he won the night’s first award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for his work in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as the wise wizard Gandalf.
A fellow Brit, Helen Mirren, picked up an “Actor” for her supporting work in Gosford Park. The SAG supporting role awards traditionally have not been as accurate a predictor of the Oscars as the leading role awards have been, so we don’t hold much hope for McKellen or Mirren repeating their acceptance speeches in a couple weeks time.
Before we get to the small screen, we have some burning questions that still remain after watching the SAGs:
On the TV side, at least according to the actors, quality really only exists on HBO and NBC.
Will & Grace (NBC) and Sex and the City (HBO) seem to have switched comedic places. Will & Grace (which won best ensemble in a comedy last year) placed top honors for outstanding female and male performers in a comedy by Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes, respectively. Sex and the City (whose Sarah Jessica Parker won outstanding female performer in a comedy last year) won for best comedy ensemble this year.
(Stay with me.)
NBC kept the momentum going as The West Wing swept the outstanding performances in a drama–Allison Janney (female, natch) and Martin Sheen (male) took home the “Actors”–and also took home the outstanding ensemble performance in a drama.
ABC did score a couple of TV awards. Ben Kingsley‘s performance in Anne Frank earned him kudos for actor in a TV movie, while Judy Davis won in the female category for Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.
The March 10 ceremony from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles included presentation of the life achievement award to the very worthy Ed Asner.
